One of the few "good things" about being unemployed is that when the kids are off of school, I'm around to deal with them. Daughter #2 was off all week, and I was in charge of making sure that she didn't end up with egregious bodily harm, or burn down the apartment (which she and a friend she had over yesterday seemed to have been in the process of). #2 is rather interested in cooking, and The Wife had assigned her some side-dishes to make today (the cranberry sauce and a lime jello w/mandarin orages and cream cheese thing which we got from her side of the family), and I was prepping a "traditional" side dish from my side of the family, Shredded Brussels Sprouts in Cream ... the recipe for which is over there ===>I know I've posted this previously, but having it up on the web makes it handy for me to find again each time I need it! I've no doubt also related the story behind this, but, hey, if you're bored read it anyway. My Mom, who had been in advertising and PR since she got out of college, was a specialist in the consumer food product niche, and when she went out on her own, back in the 70's, she had a client list of major blue chip clients. Over the years, she'd built up very close relationships with most of the major food press across the country, and pretty much knew everybody. One of her buddies was William Rice, who had been Food editor of The Washington Post (1970-80), executive editor of Food and Wine magazine (1980-85), and principle food and wine columnist of The Chicago Tribune (1986-2004). This recipe had originally appeared in Food & Wine, and had been subsequently collected in one of their books. My Mom, every year, would call up Bill and ask for the recipe, and one year (while at the Tribune, obviously) ran this in a holiday section. I assume that I still have the newsprint version around somewhere (we also made copies so as not to lose it), but have found this scan to be more predictably retrievable.
While we have this every Thanksgiving, I've also made it up for various things at the Girls' schools where they've wanted parents to bring "family tradition" recipes. I suppose my Mom's sage stuffing recipe would be more "family" family (having come down from her mother), but this is certainly the most notable thing that we have ... and it's quite popular with vegetarians (as long as they're cool with butter and cream).One quirk of The Wife is that she hates having kitchen equipment actually out in the kitchen, so if it's not being used several times a week (like the toaster, or microwave, or coffee maker) it's not allowed out. So, making this recipe works best when she's not around, as I have to both drag out the (ancient very early model) Cuisinart and my 70's era electric wok, the latter being the only thing that will effectively allow me to saute the shredded sprouts.
This was somewhat easier this year, as The Wife found stalks of Brussels Sprouts (like at left), which meant that the individual sprouts could just be cut off and didn't need the tedious hand cleaning that they usually do. So, having had the sprouts good to go, all I had to do was put them through the Cuisinart (with the 1/8" blade), and cook them ... meaning that in the period of less than an hour I was able to get the equipment out, get the Brussels Sprouts ready for tomorrow, and clean up and put back the otherwise "offensive" kitchen gear! The Wife was very happy about this turn of events.
Anyway, there you go ... I managed to get through a whole Thanksgiving post without going off into bitching and moaning ... well, until bringing the concept up just now. I guess I should quit while this is still a "festive" post!
